Diane Hardesty is a national speaker and patient advocate, using her family’s equally heartwarming and heartbreaking Lynch Syndrome hereditary cancer story of adversity and triumph to bring awareness of the importance of family cancer histories and germline genetic testing for hereditary cancer mutations. Before hereditary cancer genetic testing, there were 10 cancer deaths in Diane’s family. Since her genetic testing and the testing of other family members there have been ZERO cancer deaths in Diane’s family. Diane’s favorite memory as an advocate is the honor of introducing Dr. Henry Lynch at a hereditary cancer genetics conference in 2012. She has been featured on Lifetime Television’s Access Health show, as well as being active in multiple nonprofit organizations and support groups for those with hereditary cancer syndromes, both as an advisory board member and as a writer and blogger. In 2017 she was chosen as Cancer Warrior of the Year by The WunderGlo Foundation, an honor which was presented by the renowned Dr. Stephen Gruber of City of Hope. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of My Faulty Gene and also loves representing them at various conferences such as AACR, ASCO, ASCO-GI, CGA-IGC, and NSGC.
